In an attempt to address some of the shortcomings of handheld camera devices, the use of a camera with multiple camera modules each of which may be used to capture an image has been suggested.
Capturing subjects performing relatively higher speed actions is popularly known as the action shots. Examples of action shots are shots of sports scenes with motion, e.g., with individuals moving such as for example as part of a soccer game or other type of game, car race shots, etc. Such action shots are common in both consumer photography and professional photography e.g., sports photography.
In the existing camera systems, action shots are typically captured by reducing the global exposure time. In such an approach the exposure time used by a camera is reduced. Doing so, reduces the blur produced in the subject, but also reduces the exposure for the background. This, in turn, increases the noise in the image given the reduction in light collection time and reduces the effective quality of the photograph generated using the reduced exposure time.
While memory costs have decreased, capturing large number of images, can still consume a large amount of memory particularly when an individual image is re-presented in using mega-pixels. The storage requirements are magnified considerably when a camera includes multiple optical chains each of which may be operated in parallel to capture a separate image.
Consider for example the case where a camera device includes which N number of camera modules each of which might be operated in parallel to capture separate images. In such a case, memory requirements during each capture period in which the N modules were used would be N times what would be required if a single camera module were used. In the case of still image capture, where relatively few images or frames are captured each second the memory requirements associated with operating multiple camera modules in parallel may be manageable for a handheld device. This may be particularly the case where a photographer's may move the camera between shots and take the time to frame or manipulate the scene between each shot. In such applications the number of images captured per second maybe relatively low, e.g., with the time period between shots being on average above a second in some cases.
While taking individual photographs where the camera is carefully positioned is important to many hand held camera owners, in cases where there is motion a user may want to take what is sometimes referred to as a burst sequence with images being captured in quick succession. Also a user of a handheld camera may want to capture video for a brief or extended period of time requiring images to be captured sequentially at a desired frame rate, e.g. 1/30 of a second or 1/60th of a second. In the case of burst mode it may be desirable to capture images even more quickly in an attempt to avoid the effect of motion blur and/or to avoid the risk of missing a key shot if a lower image capture rate were used.
When capturing multiple frames per second in burst or video mode, the amount of data which is captured and stored can be considerable. This problem is multiplied considerably when multiple camera modules are operated in parallel even for short periods of time during which a high image capture rate is used. Furthermore, in addition to using large amounts of memory operating multiple camera modules in parallel can increase power requirements and drain a battery more quickly than if fewer camera modules were being used.
It would be desirable if new methods, apparatus and/or modes of operation could be developed which could take advantage of one or more features of a camera device with multiple camera modules to support one or more operations such as taking a burst series of images, capturing video, and/or capturing images of a scene including motion.
While not necessary for all embodiments, it would be desirable if one or more features in at least some embodiments allowed action shots to be captured without the undesirable blur associated with using long exposure times to capture areas where there is motion but also without all or much of the undesirable noise associated with using short exposure times. In addition, while not necessary for all embodiments it would be desirable if methods, apparatus and/or modes of operation could be developed which support data efficient and/or energy efficient burst and/or video image capture modes of operation in camera devices with multiple camera modules.